Minor Pythagoreans

This chapter pursues an understanding of what Cicero thought 'Italic' philosophy to be, and proceeds to develop a broader account of how Cicero's version compares with the surviving textual evidence and testimonia from the Hellenistic period of the philosophy of the 'Italic' philosophers, including the Lucanians 'Ocellus', 'Eccelus', and 'Aresas/Aesara', and the Rudian Ennius. Special focus is placed on their theories of cosmology, psychology, and law. Collocation of 'Italic' with 'Pythagorean' philosophy of this era aids in building a more comprehensive (...) view of what Hellenistic Pythagoreanism may have looked like. Uploaded here is the pre-publication version; please email me for the printed version. (shrink)

The Pythagorean women are a group of female philosophers who were followers of Pythagoras and are credited with authoring a series of letters and treatises. In both stages of the history of Pythagoreanism – namely, the fifth-century Pythagorean societies and the Hellenistic Pythagorean writings – the Pythagorean woman is viewed as an intellectual, a thinker, a teacher, and a philosopher. The purpose of this Element is to answer the question: what kind of philosopher is the Pythagorean woman? The traditional picture (...) of the Pythagorean female sage is that of an expert of the household. The author argues that the available evidence is more complex and conveys the idea of the Pythagorean woman as both an expert on the female sphere and a well-rounded thinker philosophising about the principles of the cosmos, human society, the immortality of the soul, numbers, and harmonics. (shrink)

Ancient Philosophy Today, Volume 4, Issue 2, Page 237-241, October, 2022.

For the first time, the reader can have a synoptic view of the reception of Pythagoras and Pythagoreanism in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, East and West, in a multicultural perspective. All the major themes of Pythagoreanism are addressed, from mathematics, number philosophy and metaphysics to ethics and religious thought.

The article offers academic translation into Ukrainian of a number of works by Pythagorean woman philosophers, which reveal the problems of human nature and personality education. The focus is on such pseudo-epigraphs of ancient woman thinkers as two letters by Theano of Crotone, letters of Miya of Crotone and Melissa, as well as treatises by Fintys of Sparta "On a woman prudence", Aesara of Lucania "On human nature" and excerpts from Porphyry’s "Pythagorean music" which contain fragments of the works of (...) Ptolemais of Cyrene. The main themes of the above works and letters are the education of the individual in general, and women in particular. Accordingly, the basis of education should be an element of restraint and prudence in everything. If the child is brought up on this basis, he will be able to be strong and resilient during certain life situations. In the treatises of the Pythagorean women-philosophers it is noted that through the study of our own human nature we can understand the philosophical foundations of natural law and morality. Therefore, a woman should use in her life not fleeting emotions and reactions to a particular event, situation, but also be moderate and prudent. These texts are significant in the context of understanding gender issues in the Hellenistic era. Based on the translated works, we can say that, according to thinkers, a number of virtues are common to both sexes, moderation or abstinence are more common in women. At the same time, the limitation of the social role of women reflects an understanding of the nature of the female soul. Accordingly, the normative principle of harmony must be implemented in the context of the specific social roles allowed to women. At the same time, the availability of these texts indicates that philosophy is possible for both men and women, thus emphasizing the importance of involving the latter in knowledge and scientific knowledge. (shrink)

This paper attempts to demonstrate that the conviction about the harmony and order of the world was a fundamental metaphysical principle of the Pythagoreans. This harmony and order were primarily sought in the structures of arithmetics, yet following the discovery of incommensurable magnitudes (irrational numbers, as we now call them), the Pythagoreans began to see geometrical structure as a fundamental part of the world. On the example of the Pythagoreans’ metaphysics and science, the paper shows the mutual relations between metaphysics (...) and science. It demonstrates— on the one hand—the necessity of the first as a guide for the latter, and—on the other—how our scientific research can change its basic metaphysical principles when these are found to be inappropriate. The paper also tries to show the need for a realistic approach in our scientific research by means of the same example of the Pythagoreans, that is, the need to discern something which is below the surface appearance. (shrink)

This paper examines the relation between Pythagorean and Heraclitean political views. I argue that for Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and Archytas the cosmological and musical notions of harmony (ἁρμονία) and the related notion of concord (ὁμόνοια) have an intrinsic political significance. These thinkers variously reflect upon political harmony and concord, and agree that a crucial condition for it is law (νόμος), which according to Pythagoras and Heraclitus has a divine origin. I begin with the Heraclitean fragments 22 B51, 54, 72, and 114 (...) DK, in which social and political reflection is connected with the theory of the harmony of opposites. In the case of Pythagoras and early Pythagoreanism, the intense, albeit indirect political influence in Magna Graecia—as transmitted by Iamblichus and Porphyry—offers evidence for social and political ideas determined by a reflection on the cosmological role of harmony and number. Finally, Archytas’ political application of rational calculation in fragment 47 B3 DK, which aims at producing concord by establishing the just measures of wealth in the city, together with the testimony on Archytas’ intense and fruitful political activity, can be taken as confirmation that the thinker’s wider cosmological views were indeed intertwined with his political reflection and action. (shrink)

The article reveals in detail the understanding of raising children in the context of two pseudo-epigraphic letters of Pythagorean wonan thinkers – Theano and Myia of Crotone. Based on these letters, it was found that pedagogical issues were important in general for the whole Pythagorean tradition. In fact, we can say that this early Greek philosophical school was the first to systematically and comprehensively approach the problem of upbringing and education in ancient society. It is hypothesized that this topic is (...) not accidentally in the center of attention of these philosophers, because their authority was the greatest among all other representatives of this philosophical school. The author’s position is proved that Theano of Crotone letter to Eubule focuses on moderation in education, which is aimed at avoiding luxury, fulfilling all children’s whims, comfort. This is the purpose of hardening in difficult circumstances in order to withstand with dignity all the potential difficulties of adult life. Accordingly, if you do not raise a child in certain restrictions, then, according to Theano, it may well be unprepared for certain trials that may occur. The thesis is substantiated that the key task of upbringing and education, according to Myia of Crotone letter, is moderation, prudence and balance, which is based on both archaic elements and Hellenistic plots, which testifies to the skill of writing this letter. It is revealed that the Pythagorean principles of education, according to both philosophers, have no gender difference. This is because both girls and boys, if they grow up in luxury, comfort and do not know the limitations, can potentially become dangerous both for themselves and for society as a whole. It is emphasized that according to the style of writing, these letters are not so much moral and ethical as paraenetic epistolary genre, ie they act as advice on the upbringing and education of the younger generation. Because of this, these letters are such sources of ancient culture, which are one of the few that are devoted to the philosophical understanding of upbringing and education. (shrink)

Introduction -- Evidence for the work: the excerpts preserved in Stobaeus -- Title and nature of the work -- Format and style of the work -- Fragments of the Pythagorean precepts preserved in Iamblichus' On the Pythagorean way of life -- A comparison of Stobaeus' and Iamblichus' evidence for the Pythagorean precepts -- Relationship of the Pythagorean precepts to Aristoxenus' other works on the Pythagoreans -- The influence of the Pythagorean precepts on the later Pythagorean tradition -- History of scholarship (...) on the Pythagorean precepts -- The standard view of the Pythagorean precepts -- The ethical system of the Pythagorean precepts -- Fragments with translation and commentary -- The Pythagorean precepts: a reconstructed text in English -- Fragment 1: obedience to parents and the laws (fr. 34 Wehrli = Stobaeus 4.25.45) -- Fragment 2: the importance of order and supervision for every age of life (fr. 35 Wehrli = Stobaeus, 4.1.49) -- Fragment 3: desire (fr. 37 Wehrli = Stobaeus, 3.10.66) -- Fragment 4: the generation of children (fr. 39 Wehrli = Stobaeus, 4.37.4) -- Fragment 5: the love of what is beautiful and fine (fr. 40 Wehrli = Stobaeus 3.1.101) -- Fragment 6: learning must be willing (fr. 36 Wehrli = Stobaeus, 2.31.119) -- Fragment 7: luck (fr. 41 Wehrli = Stobaeus, 1.6.18) -- Fragment 8: human nature is prone to excess and needs the supervision of the gods, parents and laws (fr. 33 Wehrli, Iamblichus, vp 174-6) -- Fragment 9: opinion, the training of children and young people, pleasure, desire, diet, and the generation of children (fr. 38 Wehrli, Iamblichus, vp 200-13) -- Fragment 10: the appropriate and the inappropriate in human interaction on starting points and rulers (Iamblichus, vp 180-3) -- Fragment 11: friendship (Iamblichus, vp 101-2, 230-3) -- Appendices -- Subsidiary precepts 1: avoid crowds in the morning, and 2: avoid hunting (Iamblichus, vp 96-100) -- Subsidiary precept 3: memory (Iamblichus, vp 164) -- Subsidiary precept 4: all sex is harmful (Diodorus Siculus, library of history 10.9.3), Stobaeus, Eclogae 3.1.71: divination, medicine, and music -- Concordance with the fragment numbers in Wehrli's edition. (shrink)

The purpose of the conference "On Pythagoreanism", held in Brasilia in 2011, was to bring together leading scholars from all over the world to define the status quaestionis for the ever-increasing interest and research on Pythagoreanism in the 21st century. The papers included in this volume exemplify the variety of topics and approaches now being used to understand the polyhedral image of one of the most fascinating and long-lasting intellectual phenomena in Western history. Cornelli's paper opens the volume by charting (...) the course of Pythagorean studies over the past two centuries. The remaining contributions range chronologically from Pythagoras and the early Pythagoreans of the archaic period (6th-5th centuries BCE) through the classical, hellenistic and late antique periods, to the eighteenth century. Thematically they treat the connections of Pythagoreanism with Orphism and religion, with mathematics, metaphysics and epistemology and with politics and the Pythagorean way of life. (shrink)

"Huizenga examines the Greco-Roman moral-philosophical 'curriculum' for women by comparing these two epistolary collections. The analysis is organized around four elements: textual resources, teachers and learners, instructional strategies, and subject matter. Huizenga shows that the author of the Pastorals has adopted nearly all of the 'pagan' aspects of this curriculum, but has supplemented these with theological justifications drawn from Pauline literature and traditions"--Publisher description.

The subject of this book, as per the title, is music (from the Greek μουσική τέχνη - musiké téchne, i.e. "the art of the muses") in the works of Pythagoras, the first intellectual in the history of Philosophy to make that art the center of his worldview, even including it in the so called "Exact Sciences". In order to have better grasp and clarity regarding the intellectual production of Pythagoras, whose written works survived to the 21st century in a very (...) fragmented form and inmuch smaller number, it is necessary to research the historical sources contemporary to the philosopher, as well as those which succeeded him. (shrink)